Talk Time Not Drive Time

Canada’s largest province is going hands-free – sort of.

Drivers in Ontario, Canada, will face fines up to $500CDN if they watch, listen, text, type, email, dial, or talk on any hand-held device while driving. This ban includes all cell phones, smart phones, portable video games and DVD players.

The ban on using hand-held devices takes effect Oct. 26, but begins with a gradual three-month public education grace period, where offenders will be sternly warned, but not fined. Repeat offenders may not only be fined, but could also be charged with additional infractions, such as careless driving, which adds more fines, lost demerit points, and the possibility of being tossed in jail.

Hands-free devices are not included in the ban. However, the province doesn’t condone their use, saying drivers need their full attention focused on the operation of their vehicles.

Bravo Queen’s Park – the province’s legislative assembly -- for taking the right steps towards protecting us all.

Image via Wikipedia

Over 50 countries already have banned yacking on your cell phone (or other mobile device) while driving, because statistics show an increase in accidents involving those on these communication marvels. Other jurisdictions which have banned using hand-held devices while driving include Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, and California and New York states in the U.S.A.

A study by the VirginiaTech Transportation Institute says truck drivers are 23 times more likely to have a crash if they are sending a text message, when compared to drivers not “texting.” The study also found that “texting” took a driver’s focus off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds – that’s enough time to travel the length of a football field at about 60KM/hour.

Another study by Clemson University found drivers that text message and use their iPods are 10 percent more likely to accidentally drift into another lane or off the road completely.

There are already far too many bad drivers out on our public roads, giving them the ability to talk – or worse – text message – while driving is no less dangerous than giving a kid a loaded shot gun and saying, “have fun.”

Granted, driving is second nature to most of us, we do it so often, we sometimes forget that it actually involves a lot of muscle control, attention to details, and quick thinking – just to name a few of the many skills we employ while sitting behind the wheel.

And if you believe some of the hype, those radicals calling for cell phone bans while driving compare it to drinking and driving. However that analogy is far fetched, although cell phones distract drivers, they don’t physically change a driver’s cognitive abilities, as alcohol does by slowing the firing of neurons in the brain.

There are so many distractions to motorists – from the traffic around them, to the radio and CD player in their own vehicle, to the numerous signs, billboards, and pedestrians surrounding them.

Add in the ability to check your voicemail, text message your friends about getting together after work, or even trying to pick up members of the opposite sex on a singles dating chat line (as one teenage girl was doing, when she rolled her dad’s brand new four-wheeled drive BMW a few months back) – can you really oppose this new legislation in Ontario?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ont. cellphone ban for drivers delayed to Oct. 26 (ctv.ca)
• Cellphone ban while driving in effect Oct. 26 (thestar.com)
• CAA urging motorists to stop talking/texting while driving before law kicks in (newswire.ca)
• Stop sign ahead for texting while driving? (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Sask. to ban texting, cellphone use while driving (cbc.ca)
• Federal Summit Eyes Crackdown On Texting While Driving (mobile.slashdot.org)
• Hands-free calls no safer for drivers: MD (canada.com)
• Texting - The New Way to Measure Your Technological IQ (jordansdaily.blogspot.com)

How A Labour Dispute Can Kill Off The World’s Human Population

Canada’s largest city has been without some essential services for the past month, thanks to a strike by the city’s 24,000 inside and outside unionized workers.

Paramedics, daycare centers, public parks, municipal offices, and garbage collection have all been affected by the strike.

The most visible concern affecting Toronto residents are the massive piles of trash, overflowing in community center parking lots, public basketball courts, baseball diamonds, and even children’s playgrounds.

The so-called “garbage strike” hasn’t crippled the prosperous city, ofte

Image by artriguing via Flickr

n referred to as the economic engine of the country – but it could in far reaching ways.
As the mounds of garbage fill the city’s makeshift temporary landfill sites fill – which residents have to cart their own trash too – countries around the world issue travel advisories, warning people not to come to Toronto.

Rats, raccoons, cockroaches, seagulls, and other wildlife are having the time of their lives, feasting on the simmering stinking mess. They could bring and spread diseases to people, at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) is already concerned about the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic sweeping across the globe.

WHO’s six-stage scale is at level six – the pandemic stage – as H1N1 Swine Flu has proven deadly to thousands worldwide.

With the ongoing strike – now over a month old – new concerns are popping up, as the city’s health department won’t be properly prepared to handle any sudden outbreaks of the deadly H1N1 Swine Flu.

WHO says the deadly bug’s infection rates have recently begun to decline, but as new strains of the virus have been found in the population, they are anti

Image by Metrix X via Flickr

cipating a relapse of the outbreak – one which may not be as easy to fend off, thanks to mutations making it more resilient against anti-viral medications like Tamil Flu.

If that more resistant strain hits Canada’s largest city and the local healthcare system isn’t ready, chaos will be the result. Millions of people commute back and forth from the neighboring communities outside Toronto, all of whom could fall sick, and possibly die, due to an uncontrolled outbreak. As Toronto is the hub for much of Canada’s travel, with over 50% of those coming to Canada by air, landing at the city’s Pearson International Airport, any outbreak could easily affect citizens from other countries.

If the city’s health department – which is on strike – fails to act immediately upon discovering an outbreak of the H1N1 Swine Flu, infected individuals could board planes heading for other countries, and create a global catastrophe.

All because the unions representing the city’s inside and outside workers can’t come to reasonable terms with the City of Toronto on issues of job security and sick leave.

Image by artriguing via Flickr

Ironic how the union is holding the city hostage over sick leave benefits, when the H1N1 Swine Flu could make much of the city, the country, the continent, and even the world, extremely sick, just because some staffers aren’t working because of the strike.

Scientists have been predicting the next great pandemic, far worse than the bubonic plague which wiped out most of Europe’s population, for the past decade. These scientists, using models charted over time, show how pandemics occur every century, and show how we are overdue for our century’s outbreak.

Due to economic, geographic, social, and other demographic conditions, these scientists predicted that the next great plague would come from a third-world country, where clean water and food sources are scarce.

Toronto, one of the world’s most prosperous cities, was never thought of as being a potential source for the next great pandemic. But because of the labour dispute between the city and its staff, it could be just that.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Toronto strike a union-made disaster (network.nationalpost.com)
• Maclean's cover declares `Toronto Stinks' (thestar.com)
• Toronto garbage strike tops list of travel warnings (canada.com)
• Trash strike tops travel warnings (windsorstar.com)
• Toronto coping with garbage strike: mayor to CNN (canada.com)
• The H1N1 Flu: Is This a Pandemic, or Isn't It? (time.com)

Canada’s Largest City Closed Come Back Later

That’s the message Toronto’s civic employees are sending out all over the world, regardless of whether they intended to or not.

Many countries around the world have issued travel advisories warning their citizens to avoid traveling to Toronto because of health concerns due to striking city employees refusing to collect and dispose of trash.

This past weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle listed Toronto, ON., Canada as the top place for tourists and other travelers to avoid, beating out the death, destruction and violence of places like Honduras, Northern Africa, and Mexico.

Image by Aubrey Arenas via Flickr

Although the city is open for business, you’d never know it because of the 24,000 inside and outside civic employees, who have been off the job for three-weeks now. Striking workers include parks and recreation staff, paramedics, clerks, and garbage collectors – to name just a few of the essential services affected in some way by the strike.

The ferry service connecting Toronto’s mainland to its three islands hasn’t been operating since June 22 due to the strike. Tourist hotspots on the islands are open, but might be hanging “gone out of business” signs soon, because no one can get over to the islands to enjoy the summer fun.

The amusement park, named after the Toronto island on which it resides, Centerville, on Center Island, has had to shut down all of its rides. Local theatres and restaurants on the islands have cut back hours, and staff, because they are losing money by staying open.

Restaurants, bars, and hotels are all suffering, because city employees want their sick days and better job security.

Today, Toronto Mayor David Miller went on CNN, telling Americans Toronto is “buzzing” and a great place to visit, despite the strike.

The only thing buzzing in Toronto these days are the rats, seagulls, and the army of cockroaches which are invading the once clean and safe streets of one of the world’s most metropolitan cities, thanks to the thousands of metric tonnes of trash piling up in public parks, community center parking lots, and chil

Image by Ian Levack via Flickr

dren’s playgrounds.

And there is more than just the summer’s sun heating up Toronto’s streets too. Tempers are flaring at many city-run temporary garbage sites, as striking city staffers delay and in some cases outright prevent people from entering these public spaces to dispose of their trash.

In one instance, a striking worker was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, after he claimed he was hit by a car driven by a fed-up resident at a local temporary trash site. The driver – who wasn’t charged by police – said the striking worker jumped in front of his car, trying to stop him from entering the public area.

Is it any wonder that countries around the world think Toronto isn’t a good place for their citizens to take their summer vacations?

Tourists in Toronto usually snap photos of the world’s first tallest free-standing structure – the CNTower, a major league baseball game with the Toronto Blue Jays at the “Dome,” or the view of our fair city from Lake Ontario, as they see it on one of its scenic islands.

Tourists brave enough to ignore any travel advisories can take pictures of something far more memorable – but for the wrong reasons – piles of trash in parking lots, public parks and playgrounds.

Yes Mayor Miller, Toronto is buzzing, but not the way it should be.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Toronto garbage strike tops list of travel warnings (canada.com)
• Trash strike tops travel warnings (windsorstar.com)
• Health officials monitor Toronto garbage strike (ctv.ca)
• Trash collectors say strikers block, threaten them (ctv.ca)
• Toronto on strike: Garbage strike arbitrator likely, experts say (network.nationalpost.com)